Early Saturday morning, arriving back to his Stockton apartment at 5 a.m. from a road trip to Ontario, Calif., Andrew Mangiapane hit the sack.

In a dead slumber, he awoke to his roommate Kayle Doetzel handing him his cell phone.

Four missed calls — all from Brad Pascall — to tell him the news that he’s been waiting a lifetime for.

“I’m a little nervous but I’m more excited. I’m just happy to be here,” said the Flames scrappy winger who was recalled from the Stockton Heat (officially) on Sunday morning. “It’s been my dream to play in the NHL. It’s been an awesome experience so far.”

The experience started at around 10 a.m. PT on Saturday. But a mammoth delay at San Fransisco didn’t put him in Calgary until 4 a.m. Still, bright-eyed and grinning from ear-to-ear, Mangiapane hit the ice for Sunday’s morning skate as the Flames prepared for a New Year’s Eve tilt with the Chicago Blackhawks.

The 21-year-old sixth round pick (166th overall) of the 2015 NHL entry draft will be thrown into his first National Hockey League game on the Flames’ fourth line with Matt Stajan and Troy Brouwer.

Calgary returns home to stave off a fourth straight loss after dropping back-to-back games in California (although they did get a point in a 3-2 shootout loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday).

They also dropped a 3-2 decision against the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 22 before the Christmas break.

Mangiapane, meanwhile, gets to live out his childhood dream — against all odds.

“It’s a well-earned call-up,” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan. “Not only from a strong training camp, we put him down there and he was playing with Janks and Hath. And playing well. Then we take Janks out of there and he’s still playing well. Then we take Hath out and he’s still playing well. So, he’s earned a chance.”

The Flames brass watched Mangiapane score two goals in a 6-5 overtime loss on Thursday, a rare American Hockey League and NHL double header when the Stockton Heat squared off against the San Jose Barracuda prior to the Flames and Sharks game at SAP Center.

So, when Michael Frolik went down with a fractured jaw and broke some teeth, Mangiapane was an easy choice.

“He’s a dog on a bone,” Gulutzan said. “A low centre of gravity guy that’s all around the puck and in the hard areas. He scored two really nice goals too. He finished when he got his chances. Obviously it’s a different level and it’s going to take some time, but he’s earned a chance.”

Also earning a chance is Chicago’s goalie Jeff Glass who is the other feel-good story of Sunday’s game as he gets his second-ever NHL start. The 32-year-old backstopped the Blackhawks to a 4-3 overtime victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Friday and will play in the Scotiabank Saddledome — a place where he grew up watching Flames games and played a pile of games for the Kootenay Ice — for the first time as an NHLer.

The Flames are in a funk and need to get out of it fast. Their special teams have been a disaster, Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan are in scoring slumps, and they looked overwhelmed on the road against the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks. The 2017-18 NHL season is just heating up, and games are only going to get more difficult. If the Flames can’t muster a win at home against the Blackhawks who are without goaltender Corey Crawford for the foreseeable future (no disrespect to back-up netminder and Calgarian Jeff Glass), how are they going to survive later in the week against two of their biggest Pacific Division rivals (the Los Angeles Kings and the Ducks)?

FIVE STORYLINES FOR THE GAME

1. GOOD FOR GLASS

The feel good story of the weekend was when Glass made his NHL debut on Saturday night after over a decade of toiling in the AHL, ECHL, and KHL. The Blackhawks had recalled the 32-year-old Calgary native from the American Hockey League’s Rockford IceHogs in the wake of Crawford’s upper-body injury. But when back-up Anton Forsberg gave up five goals in Vancouver, Glass was tapped on the shoulder for Friday’s game in Edmonton. So there, in front of his parents, his wife and his two-month-old daughter, a lifetime of work paid off as he backstopped the Blackhawks to a 4-3 overtime victory over the Oilers.

2. RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR

It’s an ongoing tradition that has been in effect since 1987 — Calgary’s annual New Year’s Eve clash. The game has been left off the calendar only five times; three occasions due to work stoppages (1994, 2004, ’12); in 1999, because of the Y2K threat; and in 2011, due to the World Junior Championships … The Flames have an all-time record of 18-9-3 on New Year’s Eve. Last year, they dumped the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 to ring in 2017 … Following Sunday’s clash, the Flames welcome the Los Angeles Kings (Jan. 4) and the Anaheim Ducks (Jan. 6).

3. ABOUT THE ‘HAWKS

The Blackhawks are currently on a six-game road trip which sees them away from home for 13 days, but it’s the first time the Flames and the Blackhawks will square off this season. They’ll meet two more times, just three days apart when the Blackhawks visit the Flames on Feb. 3. The Flames play the Blackhawks at United Center on Feb. 6. The Chicago club is 8-7-3 on the road and 18-14-5 overall after snapping a three-game losing skid in Edmonton on Friday.

4. THIS N’ THAT

Flames C Mikael Backlund will skate in his 500th game on Sunday … Flames LW Sam Bennett is three games away from hitting the 200 mark … Flames LW Johnny Gaudreau is 14 goals away from 100 … Flames RW Jaromir Jagr needs 36 more games to become the all-time leader in games played (1,768). After Friday’s game, he passed Ron Francis for third in NHL games played (1,732) … Flames D Mark Giordano is tied with Jim Peplinski for sixth all-time in games played in the organization (711) … the Flames dropped to 9-5-4 on the road with Friday’s 2-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

5. HOW YA DOIN’, BOUMS?

The Flames will welcome back old friend Lance Bouma, a third-round pick (78th overall) of the Calgary club back in 2008. The 27-year-old native of Provost, Alta., played 304 regular-season games in six seasons with the Flames. He was bought out by the Flames in the summer and signed a one-year, $1-million pact as an unrestricted free agent on July 1. On the Blackhawks fourth line, he’s played 37 games and scored three goals and five assists this season.

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